Tamiment Playhouse Photographs
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Abstract
The Tamiment Playhouse, located in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, was a prominent incubator of and a major creative outlet for theater, dance, film, and television in the mid-twentieth century, particularly for comedy. It nurtured many performers who later became famous, such as Danny Kaye, Carol Burnett, and Woody Allen. Much of the copious original material performed at Tamiment found its way to the professional stage, Broadway, and television. The Playhouse was part of Camp Tamiment, a summer resort for socialists and their families that opened in 1921. It began offering professional theatrical productions by the early 1930s, and closed after the season of 1960, victim of changes in the resort industry, trends and tastes in popular entertainment, and the gradual demise of Camp Tamiment itself.
Historical/Biographical Note
The Tamiment Playhouse, located in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, in the Pocono Mountains, was a prominent incubator of and a major creative outlet for theater, dance, film, and television in the mid-twentieth century, particularly for comedy. Actors such as Danny Kaye, Bea Arthur, Imogene Coca, Dick Shawn, and Carol Burnett, directors Max L. Liebman, Herb Ross, and Joe Layton, choreographers and dancers like Jerome Robbins, and Anita Alvarez, and writers Woody Allen and Neil Simon are a small sampling of the major entertainment figures nurtured at Camp Tamiment. The Playhouse was celebrated for its vibrant weekly original revues, filled with original music, songs, dances, and sketches. Much of this original material performed at Tamiment found its way to the professional stage, Broadway, and finally, television. "Your Show of Shows," one of the best-known programs of television's "Golden Age," had its origins in Tamiment productions.
The Playhouse had its home at Camp Tamiment, which began as a summer resort for socialists and their families. Less than two years after the Camp opened in 1921, campers and staff began to stage amateur theatricals, and a social hall for performances was built. By the early 1930s the Camp had hired a professional entertainment staff theatrical producer, Max Liebman. Out of this grew the professional theatrical productions that became the Tamiment Playhouse. The theater played its last season in 1960, when it was forced to close -- victim of changes in the resort industry, trends and tastes in popular entertainment, and the gradual demise of Camp Tamiment itself (which closed its doors in 1965).
Sources:
Martha LoMonaco. Every Week, A Broadway Review, the Tamiment Playhouse, 1921-1960(Greenwood Press, 1992)
Arrangement
Folders are arranged chronologically within the chronological and scrapbook series; alphabetically within the topical and portrait series; there is no arrangement within the oversized series
The collection is organized into five series:
Missing Title
- I. Chronological
- II. Topical
- III. Portraits, Individuals
- IV. Scrapbooks
- V. Oversized
Scope and Content Note
About two-thirds of the images in this collection are of Tamiment Playhouse productions or production-related activities, including from Your Show of Shows, and The Princess and the Pea, which later became the successful musical Once Upon a Mattress. The remainder of the images consist of a series of pages of photographs from scrapbooks. These photographs focus on Camp Tamiment -- its facilities, staff, and campers, from the 1920s through 1941 -- rather than the Playhouse. Although the original scrapbooks have been disassembled for preservation purposes, researchers are able to see how they were arranged originally, by examining a set of photocopies made of the scrapbook pages, arranged in their original order. Many photographs were also produced as postcards by photographers Lewis "Snappy" Goren and Seymour Fischer. There are also images of Ben Josephson and Bertha Mailly, respectively director and founder of Camp Tamiment.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Because of the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the collection. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in the collection; these items are expected to pass into the public domain 120 years after their creation. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, (212) 998-2630.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; Collection name; Collection number; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Myron Kolatch on behalf of the Tamiment Playhouse in 1983. The accession number associated with this collection are 1983.003, 1983.006, and NPA.2005.031.
Separated Materials
Separated from the Tamiment Playhouse Records (TAM 107)
